


Words without Merit

by hightechzombie



Category: Dishonored (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Pre-Game(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-02
Updated: 2013-12-02
Packaged: 2018-01-03 07:13:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1067561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hightechzombie/pseuds/hightechzombie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The question came four years later, when the words lost its edge and darkness lulled the senses.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Words without Merit

"Did you resent being brought here as a tribute?"

The Empress' hand rested on the polished surface of the table. A vase with flowers almost touched her fingers. The mirror above reflected the sleek porcelain shape, as well as the gigantic bed at the far end of the room. Jessamine was caught in the movement of walking away as if her own question ensnared her limbs. She was neither looking at the mirror nor at her bodyguard, distanced and composed.

Corvo was standing on the balcony, hands folded behind him and looking at the sea. As soon as he heard Jessamine, he turned towards her shining outline in the darkness of the room.

The question was of the sort that could have been said in many ways and each would require a different answer. As far as Corvo could see, the Empress did not seek to be comforted, nor was it idle curiosity that needed to be sated.

A soldier given away to a foreign monarch, to never see homeland again. What was he supposed to feel? There was honor in this, of course, but most of it has been politics and helplessness. Corve had little choice and whatever wriggling room he was given, he took it to trade favours for his family's well-being.

But the Empress asked not for his reasons - which were easy enough to guess -, but about what he had felt.

"I resented my superiors as a boy resents... resents not as one being taken to an alienage, but..." Corve stopped and tried a different approach. "Do you have institutions here that require children to be prepared for their service from an early age?"

The Empress picked up a dried fallen flower and her fingers gently rubbed it into dust.

"Yes, we do. The Overseers may be the most renown example."

Corve nodded and threw a side-glance to the sea.

"Then my metaphor may be even more fitting. It is an important duty that children could not care less about. All they know are fairy-tales and fearful gossip. Becoming one yourself seems as strange as becoming an oliphant."

Jessamine stood still and watched the portrait on the wall, while her Lord Protector caressed the railings.

"I felt the inexplicable need to prove myself. Not to your Empire, my Majesty," Corve turned his head and hinted a smile, even though still intensely focused on the gentle sea and the rocking waves. "I wanted to prove myself to my homeland. Like a child that tries to get excel at studies so that the parents may recognize their mistake and allow to return home. I wanted to be good in order to go back."

His smile mocked himself, while his forehead was furrowed in confusion.

"Immensely foolish. But in the haze of those days I did not understand my motivations, even less what happened around me. I played my part."

The Empress nodded and closed her eyes. She was all contrasts, all black and white, but it was just moonlight's lies. Jessamine stood still, a silhouette impossible to capture.

"I did not resent being brought here and I did not mind being a tribute. Being brought in as a tribute, though... being named in the same breath as that awe-striking useless monstrous machine - is it still around or have you sent it to a warehouses? - I resented that fact," Corvo sighed. "You must have seen it. I know that others at court have.

"Indeed. I have seen it," Only Jessamine's lips moved. "You burned with indignity and impatience. Your posture was defiant, but I took no insult. In that moment all I cared for was the symbolism imprinted in your arrival. Through you, Corvo, they were bragging about Serkanos might, all the while humbly proposing to share their human weapons. I admire the political finesse of whoever made that decision, although I will consider this person an unusually cold one - one that casually embraces the practice of gifting people to one another."

The Empress halted.

"Resentment is natural, Corvo. But I was surprised how quickly it faltered. In mere seconds, the flame was snuffed out. I wonder, Corvo, how could it be?"

The wind was cold and both felt it. Corvo's hair was ruffled by a gout of air, but Jessamine stood far back in the safety of her rooms, her clothes perfect and untouched by autumns touch.

"You looked as if you had questions. Questions not for the embassador, but for me," finally said Corvo. The Empress words implied suspicion, but it was not what troubled him. The question flirted with the notion of love at first sight, but it was hardly her intention.

Jessamine searched for purpose.

"If I ever hoped to give you a satisfying answer, I had to give up on what sustained me. Most of all, my pride. I very much wanted to hear your questions, perhaps more than you wanted to ask them."

Corvo felt strangely dissatisfied when Jessamine nodded. The poignancy of the moment was lost. Silence wrapped itself around them.

"Did I ask the right questions?"

Corvo smiled back.

"I was glad that you asked at all."


End file.
